Captain
(Character and Pattern Telephone Access Information Network).
The
Japanese experimented with this videotex service between December 1979 and
March 1981.
The system was able to handle some 3,500
characters of Japanese language and could represent 120 alphanumeric
characters and symbols. The project was funded by
the Japanese Ministry of Post and Telecommunications.
A substantial proportion of the information,
about 30 percent in the early days, was supplied by the Japanese newspaper
industry.
The service included pages covering hobbies,
entertainment, education, sports, news, weather, shopping guides, travel
and sight-seeing. The trial included 700 personal and 100 business
terminals.
Studies showed the average number of calls was
4.6 per week and the average length was 13 minutes. Sports, news and
weather accounted for 9 percent of accesses, well behind amusements and
hobbies (52 percent), and education and culture (14 percent).